About “Mean Mr. Mustard”

Recorded as one with “Sun King”, “Mean Mr Mustard” was composed in India by John Lennon in spring 1968. It was considered for inclusion on the White Album, but wasn’t recorded in the studio until the Abbey Road sessions the following year.

The song originated from a newspaper story about a miserly man who was said to have hidden his money in his rectum.

That’s me, writing a piece of garbage. I’d read somewhere in the newspaper about this mean guy who hid five-pound notes, not up his nose but somewhere else. No, it had nothing to do with cocaine.
-John Lennon

Another interpretation was later offered by Tony Bramwell, an associate of the group.

There was an old “bag lady” who used to hang around the Knightsbridge end of Hyde Park, London, close to the army barracks. She had all her possessions in plastic bags and slept in the park. I’m sure that she had something to do with the song.

The group originally recorded a demo of “Mean Mr Mustard” at Kinfauns, George Harrison’s bungalow in Esher, Surrey. This version, from May 1968, was eventually released on Anthology 3.

In “Mean Mr Mustard” I said “his sister Pam” – originally it was “his sister Shirley” in the lyric. I changed it to Pam to make it sound like it had something to do with it [“Polythene Pam”]. They are only finished bits of crap that I wrote in India.
-John Lennon

During the development of Abbey Road’s long medley, “Her Majesty” was originally included between “Mean Mr Mustard” and “Polythene Pam”, before Paul McCartney decided that the sequence didn’t work.

However, when “Her Majesty” appeared at the end of the album it was anticipated by the final crashing chord of “Mean Mr Mustard”, left in from an early mix.